‘The Unwanted’ tackles anti-Semitism in WWII

“The Unwanted” by Michael Dobbs is a riveting and
unfortunately true story of how the world turned their back on Jewish families
seeking to escape Nazi Germany. Although many would like to compare it to the
current day, the fact is that the book’s account of the early years of World
War II does not echo today’s policies. After reading this book, anyone that
compares the past and present should be ashamed. As the book illustrates these
were true asylum seekers.

The problem thwarting the Jewish escape was mainly the low
refugee quotas. At a time when the American public was deeply isolationist,
xenophobic and anti-Semitic, U.S. officials dragged their feet or denied visas.

Dobbs quotes American journalist Dorothy Thompson, “A piece
of paper with a stamp on it was the difference between life and death.”
Using the village of Kippenheim as a sample population, he shows the tragic
consequences of an unresponsive refugee policy. This small village is located
on the edge of the Black Forest, not far from the French/German border of the
Rhine River. A place where Jews and Christians lived peacefully with each other
for generations, notably the town’s synagogue was right down the street from
the Catholic Church.

Dobbs writes how anti-Semitism seemed to be confined to cities
and towns, “For many Christian Kippenheimers, anti-Semitism was more a matter
of class resentment than racial hatred… A cultural and psychological gulf
developed between the Christian farmers and the Jewish tradesmen,” that did not
manifest itself into much violence.

Yet, everything seemed to change after Kristallnacht in late
1938, when Jewish homes, hospitals, synagogues, businesses and schools were
ransacked and destroyed. The Nazis claimed it was a supposed “spontaneous
protest” against “murderous” Jews. There was a senseless roundup of Jewish men,
a signal to those who were paying attention, that Germany was not safe. Dobbs
writes, “Any doubts about what they should do were swept away in an instant. A
single hope remained: emigration.”

Dobbs delves into the lives of a few families from the
village and the attempts they made to escape. Many were successful and were
able to leave before and slightly after the breakout of war on Sept. 3, 1939.
Several Kippenheimers made it to Marseille and then on to the United States via
Morocco. But most of the remaining Jews were sent to Gurs, a holding camp in
the southwest part of France, and from there to the killing concentration camp,
Auschwitz. Readers find out how 6,500 Jews were deported, where roughly one in
four died in the deplorable French camps — four out of 10 were sent to
Auschwitz.

The book recounts how the wait for visas turned deadly for
Kippenheimers Gerda and Momo Auerbacher. With their papers stamped “Immigration
to the United States pending,” they were crammed into railroad cars and taken
to the final stop on their life’s journey: Auschwitz. Another village couple,
Max and Fanny Valfer were finally granted visas in August 1942, just weeks
after the Germans shifted their policy toward Jews from expulsion to
extermination. The Valfers were deported “to the east” in the fall of 1942 and
murdered at Auschwitz.

Dobbs tried to be fair-minded when he showed both opinions
regarding the American response to the Holocaust and whether more could have
been done to save the persecuted Jews. Dobbs quotes David Wyman who wrote a
book “The Abandonment of the Jews,” “Both the president (FDR) and the Congress
had failed the test of leadership. The State Department was guilty of ‘outright
obstructionism.’ The press was also complicit.”

Roosevelt’s passivity while the European Jews were massively
being annihilated was deplorable. He did nothing while the St. Louis, a ship
carrying Jewish refugees from Germany, was denied access. He did nothing to
gather support for the Childrens’ Jewish Refugee Bill, and allowed men like
Breckinridge Long in charge of the State Department’s refugee programs, to
remain in office instead of firing him. This hands-off policy proved Hitler
correct when he said that no one wants the Jews.

Dobbs reminds people that the six million are not just a
statistic, but actual human beings. They suffered atrocities, mass murder,
crimes against humanity, and/or genocide. Readers will understand through these
individuals their desperate struggle to survive at a time when the world
abandoned them.

Elise Cooper: I know
that some reviews might use your book to compare it to the present-day
situation. How do you feel about that?

Michael Dobbs: This
is a book about history, not about the modern-day politics. I did not want to
make a judgment but allow readers to draw their own conclusions based on the
facts. As a writer I believe in show, don’t tell.

EC: Why did you
decide to write the book?

MD: I work for the
Holocaust Museum. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary, they have a new exhibit,
“Americans and the Holocaust.” I helped with the research that dealt with the
refugees and their immigration to the U.S. I want to connect the abstract with
the impact it had on ordinary people. I chose the village of Kippenheim because
it had a substantial Jewish community that tried to emigrate to the U.S. The
families I write about had different experiences: some succeeded getting to
America, and some did not.

EC: You also discuss
the different attitudes towards the Jews?

MD: There were
different perspectives regarding the Jews in Kippenheim. Some villagers were
outright Nazis like the postmaster who waged brutal campaigns. Some were
sympathetic and helped such as Anna Kraus who sold milk and eggs to the
Wachenheimer Family and visited them late at night when the rest of the village
was asleep. Yet most just put their heads down.

EC: Do you think
that many Jews stayed too long before trying to get out?

MD: I think the
younger Jews had fewer ties to Germany and saw the writing on the wall sooner.
But after Kristallnacht everybody understood that it was no longer safe for a
Jew to live in Germany. The decrees robbed most of them of their wealth and
they needed to rely on charity to get out of the country.

EC: What do you want
the reader to get out of your book?

MD: I want everyone
to understand the human dimension where real lives are at stake. I tried to
show what it was like to be a refugee trying to emigrate to the U.S. This
included all the harrowing aspects that they went through, the bureaucratic
nightmare. I wanted to show the political debate at the time and the issues
that went on with the various sides.